Fridge plan for Monarch

PLANNERS are recommending a controversial recycling firm, which was fined for breaking environmental protection laws this summer, be given a licence to store de-gassed fridges at Royton's Monarch Mills.

PLANNERS are recommending a controversial recycling firm, which was fined for breaking environmental protection laws this summer, be given a licence to store de-gassed fridges at Royton's Monarch Mills.

Britannia Import and Export Ltd and director Bob Bulcock were fined thousands of pounds at Oldham Magistrates' court in August, for breaking laws governing the safe storage of fridges and removal of ozone-damaging CFC gasses.

The court heard the company systematically breached regulations to save money, despite receiving over £80,000 for collecting unwanted fridges on behalf of Greater Manchester councils.

Director Bob Bulcock, 38, of Broad Lane, Rochdale, pleaded guilty to four offences while the firm pleaded guilty to storing 3,500 fridges at Monarch Mill without a licence, plus three other offences.

Despite the prosecutions and the firm's other controversial acts, such as storing fridges without licenses at Chadderton and Collyhurst, Oldham planning officers say Britannia should be allowed to store de-gassed fridges at Royton.

At the latest planning committee meeting, an officers' report stated there was nothing "inherently flammable" about such stockpiles. And no processing of any description would take place, thus alleviating fears about gases escaping to the atmosphere. The fridges will merely be stockpiled on the ground floor and stacked to the ceiling, pending future processing. The mill is apparently the only indoor site of it's kind in Greater Manchester.

The Environment Agency brought the summer prosecution but says it has no objections to storing old fridges at Monarch Mill. But Britannia needs a licence.

Greater Manchester Fire Brigade will inspect the premises soon and said that the mill has a Fire Precautions Act certificate.

The planning report said no objections could be found to the continued use of the mill for fridge storage.

In the future, the stored fridges will need to be removed and taken elsewhere for second-stage processing.

"The fact that the company is also paying rent will undoubtedly also act as an incentive to early clearance," the report stated.